Scotto Moore (1)

So fun! The lead character has a sustained, hilarious voice. The story playfully swirls together gaming, multiverses, linguistics, and politics. It offered a much more enticing case for anarchy than Doctorow’s pendantic Walkaway. By the time I finished this, my throat hurt, even while I longed to try out power morphemes.

I was uncertain to begin with whether this would be all manic sparkly quips in lieu of character/storyline. It wasn't, and it drew and held my attention - for most of the book. The power morphemes were cool (I mean the linguistics rapidly got very wacky but hey, so did everything else, so it fit); the intrigue and revelations were compelling; the main character was fun but not shallow and despite her initial cynicism had a strong moral core; the game setting was quirky and not my kind of show more game but I can see the appeal and enjoyed the descriptions of its internal mythology.

But... there kept being more revelations, more levelling up, more and more massive melees against the Big Boss, and as I type this I realise this is 100% in keeping with game structure so if you like games then there you are, but at a certain point I was so overstimulated that I started getting bored. Not my kind of game, I guess. show less

This really is a WTF book - a mix of weird physics, video games, and linguistical theories (there really is a theory about a metaphysical universe filled with human ideas).

The plot is intelligent, with the main character actually listening to those around and not barging into a fight. The triad of power was well done, with the cabal both saving humanity and being evil about it, the anarchists against the cabal, and the storm eating up everything.

Does the story make sense... maybe. Its far show more fetched, but has basis in something something, I really don't know what, but physics gets weird on a certain level, and the weirdness here reflects that

As for the characters, well written with humanity. The decision of Isobel helping the Cabal save humanity, but at the cost of humanity becoming slaves, vs letting humanity die - its not a black and white story but some parts of it incredibly black and white.

Of course, the background is awesome. I mean, Sparkle Dungeon, a video game, with feral rainbows and evil DJ's bent turning all music into EDM (or something), intelligent punctuation and synthetic punctuation, fighting for control, add in a storm that will engulf everything, and this becomes a book that really shouldn't work, but does only because it double downs and than triple downs on the wackiness of the story. show less

In reality, Isobel is an unemployed music publicist. But in VR, she's the Queen of the Sparkle Realm, all-time leaderboard champ of a series of dance-music themed action-RPGs. And then things get weird, as it turns out that Magic is Real, she's roped in as a junior researcher at a PR firm working with the creepy Governor of California and a legally-distinct-from-Scientology religious movement. But these earthly villains are obstacles before the Thundercloud, a multi-dimensional reality show more devouring monstrosity that only Isobel and her allies can stop.

Snow Crash runs through this book like a skeleton, and there's a lot of ways in which this is a kind of Gen-Z update of Stephenson's classic. Our real-life pauper/virtual hero protagonist, the idea that language can become a magic weapon, two shadowy cabals battling it our for the soul of California. The difference is that Battle goes cosmological in scope, hopping into alternate dimensions and across the universe chasing its quest, with the main character assuming literal godhood and cutting down skyscraper sized demons with her signature Blades Per Minute sword.

But the difference is that Snow Crash was built around a solid mythological/scientific core, and Battle runs entirely on vibes. And I gotta say, the vibes are real mid. The first time you cut down a gigantic horned reality eating demon, that's dope. Fifth time is a chore. The plot and characters just kind of float around, with vaguely anarchist politics that power is bad, mmkay, and those currently in power are least situated to wield it. The lack of limits erases any stakes, and the only part of the writing that's consistently enjoyable are the EDM-themed puns. Shame. show less